In our old Fen house we had private sewage so no charges for that element and the water (no meter) was based on the old council tax band which was never upgraded from when we bought the place semi abandoned.... hence around £100/yr payable to Cambs Water.
On a meter now with Anglian Water in this new (to us) place and the monthly payment over the past year based on out first few months was £37 so £444/yr.
Just received a bill for an extra £225 to top payments up to actual useage and now they want to up the monthly d/d to reflect this £600+ useage.
So... 4 people in a 4-bed who don't wilfully waste water... is £600+ what you'd expect?
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Ours is in same order, possibly more. Mrs B does use a sprinkler in garden though.
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>> Ours is in same order, possibly more. Mrs B does use a sprinkler in garden
>> though.
>>
same here
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Crumbs, F. 4 people in our 4 bed - £350 a year, metered. Thames Water.
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I guess actual cu.mtrs used is the most important bit... ours was 166... plus of course the sewerage at 90% of that.
We use watering cans for the garden and often from the butts and never water the grass, cars are washed with one bucket of soapy and two large watering cans of rinse.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Tue 11 Jun 13 at 10:44
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Our street had water meters fitted by Anglian water, but I remained on rateable value bills. The neighbours thought I was mad.
The metered rate has increased to a point where I'm now paying less than my neighbours.
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Makes me realise how lucky we are (I'm not bragging BTW, just telling ya)
3 bed detached with a bit of land = Band C (no street lighting/cleaning of course)
Private drainage and water supply = £0
Winter heating cost = £450 (coal)
Just the two of us, or 3 if y'all include Bubba, but he's not had a wash in 13 years!
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Welcome to Anglia Water prices! Mine shot up by 15% this year, I was paying something silly like £55-60 a month for a 2 bed terrace. Went onto a water meter now paying about £21 a month, I wasn't sure I would save money but it saved me a large amount.
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Private water supply and sewerage. Cost = £Nil
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Have you a private well? I get £30 quid off for private water runoff but that's it.
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2 people, two bed - on RV £296 pa payable in eight instalments. Severn Trent.
No way will I go for a meter, as I can and do, use as much as I want, including copious garden watering as we are on very free draining land.
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>> Have you a private well? I get £30 quid off for private water runoff but
>> that's it.
>>
£30 off what? We aren't connected to anything. There is a well in the garden, supplied by an underground spring, and also a septic tank (down-hill). The tank has never needed emptying since built, presumably in 1875 with the house.
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I get £30 off my bill I meant. It's a rainwater run off discount, it's doesn't drain into the water company drains.
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I'm changing my supplier to WaterAidUK. Apparently they can supply a whole African village for £5 a month!
;-)
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>> I'm changing my supplier to WaterAidUK. Apparently they can supply a whole African village for
>> £5 a month!
>>
>> ;-)
You'll have to carry it yourself from the well, and dry your sewage and use it for fuel.
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>>
>> You'll have to carry it yourself from the well, and dry your sewage and use
>> it for fuel.
>>
It's a good point though. Scottish Power manage to get their electricity to me using someone else's wires - I don't have to go to Scotland and fill up a battery.
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There's a well in my garden....and there's always water in it...so I think I need to investigate a private supply.
I pay £47 per month, non metered, for water supply only.
Sewage goes into a septic tank, shared with neighbours and we pay £100 each p.a. at the moment to empty it. It would probably last much longer than a year, but as the tank is in their garden and they arrange it all, i'm not complaining. Any boo-boo would have sewage on their lawn.
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For water only (sewage is charged separately) Wessex Water charge me £366 for an average 168 cubic meters yearly, so £2.18 per metre, 2 occupants, no mains used on the garden, I only use showers (wife uses bath most of the time). 4 beds, band F (but does this count?), metered supply.
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Afinity Water.
£300 PA, unmetered, inc Sewerage.
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I'm guessing we'd be about the same as you Zero if we were unmetered.
It seems though there is little point in looking for leaks or meter faults as we are around the expected usage for the house/occupancy type. Be interesting to see if it drops when No.1 daughter goes to uni this autumn. She is the biggest user of the shower and washing machine.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Tue 11 Jun 13 at 13:43
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Just over £400 for W&S from Scottish Water.
Prior to SW the cost was less than 1/2 that amount as we had an abundant supply for industry that is no longer here,
Councils spent over the top amounts 60 years ago to ensure supply and today it is still way above needs.
However, sewage is a big issue that needs money spent........high rain and the drainage / sewage system cannot cope with sewage and runoff.
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>> ............ and also a septic tank (down-hill). The tank has never
>> needed emptying since built, presumably in 1875 with the house.
At that age, it's more likely to be a cesspit rather than a septic tank.
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>>
>> At that age, it's more likely to be a cesspit rather than a septic tank.
>>
I think you are right. Whenever I have tried to remember the difference between the two, I find I get them muddled and have to look them up again.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesspit
distinguishes between:
cess pit (old) = large hole, big enough for everything to decompose and seep away or be digested by worms
cess pit (new) = holding tank, has to be emptied
septic tank = mini sewerage works, for sedimentation, digestion, safe discharge. May need emptying periodically
The two usages of "cesspit" are confusing and exactly opposite in process. "Septic tank" seems to more nearly describe in modern usage a continuing nil or low maintenance process.
No one knows where ours is. The pipe just disappears into the ground, and no evidence ever appears again. Maybe one day someone will find out. :)
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That's about right for AW Fenlander.
We're on £33 per month for two people in a 3 bed house and I try and water from the water butts when I can.
Pat
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>>No one knows where ours is. The pipe just disappears into the ground, and no evidence ever appears again. Maybe one day someone will find out. :)
It's the high ground just above where everything else is greener.
;>)
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My sister had a spring on land near her house in Wales and the council tried to charge her for an Abstraction Licence, to use water she already owned and from her own land. I recall that she refused to pay and asked them how they planned to cut off her supply! The reply was deafening!
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Similar happened to a relative of mine some years ago. He owned the water source, all the land between the properties, all the pipes, supplied his neighbours with water and had his own sewage farm.
He didn't pay as they didn't do anything, although from what I recall from his telling, they sent a bill, he sent a letter explaining they didn't and couldn't do anything and that was the last he heard.
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I have paid an average of £39/qtr in metered water these past 2 years. Obviously you lot are either far too clean or don't have a dhobi wallah to do your smalls down t' local river.
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Is not the average £35-£40 per month a cheap price for the supply of clean water, piped many miles , and an efficient sewage system. Half a tank of petrol costs that.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Wed 12 Jun 13 at 08:08
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>> the supply of clean
>> water,
>>
It may be clean but any piped water I have tasted is horribly chloriney, and hardly fit to drink neat, let alone diluted with whisky.
There ought to be an organic standard for additive-free water.
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I truly never drink water "as it comes". Green tea, coffee, beer or wine are my usual drinks.
Additive free water is widely available. Ask for "distilled". Tastes very flat though.
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Although I have my bore hole water analysed by 'the board' to make sure there's no nasties in it.
I still run it through one of these to make the sweetest tasting water y'all could wish for:
shop.hiddentruths.co.uk/EVA-7ltr-ADVANCED-WATER-FILTER-SYSTEM-FLUORIDE-FILTER
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>>It may be clean but any piped water I have tasted is horribly chloriney, and hardly fit to drink neat, let alone diluted with whisky.
There ought to be an organic standard for additive-free water.
We found that the water company dosed up their product with chlorine on Fridays, to last the weekend.
This was forty years ago, and we have used a jug filter ever since for all the water we drink and cook with.
Our drinking water tastes only of water.
Back to the original theme, we pay £29.55 per month on the meter.
Just the two of us.
We converted to the meter in 2004, when we were paying £50 per month, so we've saved a lot since then.
Never water the lawns, rarely water the plants with mains water (rarely wash the cars at all....)
8o)
Last edited by: neiltoo on Wed 12 Jun 13 at 10:18
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>We converted to the meter in 2004, when we were paying £50 per month, so we've saved a lot since then.
We had a meter installed 18 months ago and it has almost halved our water charges, saving nearly £200 per year.
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=9962&m=222669
Now paying £18 per month by DD (for both supply and waste) which left us £7 in credit over the last year. They increased price per m3 by approx 8% on April 1st though.
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>> So... 4 people in a 4-bed who don't wilfully waste water... is £600+ what you'd
>> expect?
>>
Anglian Water estimates that 4 people's usage will be £401 to £800 per annum, with an average of £551 so yours is in the right region. tinyurl.com/ncc4g4p
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Thanks for the link L'es. With the bill there was a leaflet full of guff but not that average cost info which would have explained it.
The more I think the more I'm laying blame at the door of eldest daughter with far too many clothes that are washed far too frequently (wear once, on the bedroom floor for 3 days then in the wash) and too long in the shower. Looking at the useage info I reckon her going to uni could save £10/mth.
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>I reckon her going to uni could save £10/mth.
That's unlikely to be cost effective though....!!!!
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Don't try and bring logic into it! I'm trying to look at the positives of the uni financial drain.
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If my children were anything to go by, chances are much of the laundry will be brought home for processing by the staff there. As far as Uni goes, there may be a problem as far as the on-site laundrette is concerned. I spent a year at Lancaster Uni during which there was little point in trying to use the facilities as they were continually blocked by people from the town, attracted by the low charges. It was not unusual to find all the machines in use by one person, who was working for several friends as well as themselves and had many loads in hand.
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>>>laundry will be brought home
Home... brought home... oh please tell me they don't still come home and raid facilities/finances!
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>> >>>laundry will be brought home
>>
>> Home... brought home... oh please tell me they don't still come home and raid facilities/finances!
Oh yes. Raid the fridge, use the shower/bath, the washing machine, and moan they dont have money for petrol/fare home
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Crumbs. I never did that as a student. Then again, as soon as I was away and the nest was empty, my Mum sold the house and moved to the Costa del Sol. One summer, I couldn't afford to go there and had nowhere to stay, so I packed a tent and went to the Lake District in search of live-in bar work. Which I found within two days.
Kids these days are allowed to get away with far too much by their parents.
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>> Home... brought home... oh please tell me they don't still come home and raid facilities/finances!
>>
www.clintoncards.co.uk/cards/birthday-cards/general-birthday/daughter-come-to-stay-birthday-card-dad.html
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>> I spent a year at Lancaster Uni during which there was little point in trying to use the facilities as they were continually blocked by people from the town, attracted by the low charges
That's outrageous, and shouldn't be possible. At Oxford or Cambridge they would be approached by a burly fellow in a black suit and bowler hat with the courteous enquiry: 'Are you a member of this university, sir (or madam)?'
Surely Lancaster has university fuzz too, perhaps wearing trainers and a cloth cap to blend in with the locals?
:o}
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I remember my daughter's first visit home from university. We were paying for her accommodation, clothing and giving her a living allowance.
BANANAS, you've got bananas. Do you realise how much they cost?
And so she learned how to budget.
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Here at the Hovel we get lovely, fresh, soft water from the Lakeland fells. All we need totally un-metered, and abundant and all for £15 a month.
The only thing that peeves me is that we supply them "free of charge" all of our rain-water, to help their system run clean and efficiently.We do this because we receive it as a free gift! - yet they then have the audacity to charge us for their free use of it! under the pretence that they are doing US a favour by taking it away and using it.
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>> BANANAS, you've got bananas. Do you realise how much they cost?
>>
£0.68 per kilo in ALDI and most other competing large supermarkets.
Local grocer in town sells 'em for £0.68 per lb, hoping people are too thick to notice!
My daughter lived on pasta, cheese and tomato sauce (she says) while at Uni!
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Your local grocer sells them at that price so they don't make a loss. Strangely all supermarkets use bananas as a loss leader. Fruit and vegetables are the first thing you encounter when you enter a supermarket. Bananas are the most popular fruit. The retailing logic is that if the bananas are cheap you subconsciously assume the supermarket provides good value overall.
Support your local guy if you want him there tomorrow!
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Wed 12 Jun 13 at 17:12
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>> Strangely
>> all supermarkets use bananas as a loss leader.
And beans, they all sell baked beans below cost.
Live on bananas and baked beans if you are broke.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 12 Jun 13 at 17:30
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We occasionally buy bananas at Sainsbury's if we are going there for something ALDI doesn't stock.
They are the same price as ALDI's offering, but we shudder at the price of other fruit & veg on sale at Sainsbury's and rarely buy any of it.
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Bananas don't sell to the masses just because they are cheap, but because they are a convenience food, quite nutritious - the main staple over a vast swathe of central and eastern Africa - and easy to open, with a biodegradable container too.
I was put off them as a child by having to eat two for breakfast at school every day for nearly three years. But I have become a chav again in my old age, eating haphazardly and using bananas to fill the yawning gaps that sometimes crop up when I am trying to work. They don't seem to do any harm and are easy on the elderly gut.
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Bananas!
Quite high in sugar, best to eat em green like wot I doos, Canarian are bueno but, can't get em ere, like.
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>> My daughter lived on pasta, cheese and tomato sauce (she says) while at Uni!
Luxury. Pasta with melted marg and black pepper for me.
Last edited by: Alanović on Wed 12 Jun 13 at 17:16
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Tinned stuffed aubergines were incredibly cheap for some reason. Delicious on toast, a whole meal for next to nothing.
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EEEEuuuuuuuuurrrgggghhhhhh
Cannot abide aubergines. Disgusting pappy things.
Funnily enough my list of "hates" "Cannot Eats" is pretty small.
aubergines, marrows, rhubarb, prunes, and tripe.
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>>Surely Lancaster has university fuzz
I certainly never saw any. Townies used to dominate the Student Union's several bars, too, as the prices were similarly low.
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That has upset me now, I haven't had a slice of hot rhubarb pie with custard in decades and now I feel a desperate need to put that right.
My wife doesn't see the point in buying or serving anything which doesn't resemble, go with, or actually is, a lettuce.
:-(
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>> My wife doesn't see the point in buying or serving anything which doesn't resemble, go
>> with, or actually is, a lettuce.
>>
>> :-(
>>
Um, er, lean, is she?
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>> haven't had a slice of hot rhubarb pie with custard in decades
SWMBO got complaints from daughter and child minder about the after effects when she gave grandkids the stuff - they loved it.
I can't see the point of avocado and dislike 'cattle fodder' (parsnips, turnips and swede).
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A surprisingly large number of pubs in Lancaster give decent discounts to CAMRA members. Im surprised every beer drinking student isn't a member. Money back in no time, and £20 in WSpoons vouchers for the £23 annual subs.
My current favourite pubs in Lancaster are the Tap House, Borough and Sir Robert Gillow FWIW!
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When I was a student at Salford (ie when dinosaurs roamed the earth) the best pint of Boddintons was served at UMIST students union (much research done - as you'd expect of a student). The fact they served a lot of it must have helped as the draught version does not have a long dispense life after you tap a barrel.
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28 quid a month here for all services. Just the two of us. I don't mind paying Welsh Water as their business model (not for profit organisation) seems sound.
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>> (ie when dinosaurs roamed the earth)
Those were the days.....
Boddingtons was a privately owned company, based at Strangeways (adjacent to the prison)
They had their own well (back to original thread!), but had to filter and treat the water before using it.
They also had a wonderful pub on site.
The original bitter had an unusual sour bitter taste - in a good way - and was straw coloured.
At some stage, it was rumoured that the strain of yeast they used died off, and though still very drinkable, the beer tasted very different, and was darker in colour.
In one of the revolutions in the brewing industry, Boddingtons disappeared as a company, and the beer was brewed in various locations - becoming a national "brand" - and was never the same again. I'm not sure it's ever served as cask ale now, I only see it on smoothflow pumps, or, heaven forbid, in widget cans.
I won't drink it anymore, it gives me a headache in either presentation.
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The sour taste was, I think, a result of the beer oxidising, ie getting too old and turning to vinegar. I believe it had to be kept for the exact right amount of time, and when the cask was broached, instead of the 3 day life for most casks, this period was considerably shorter.
So if a lot was sold, you never had an old cask, and consequently, the taste of the beer at UMIST union was quite different to the taste you got in some pubs. I suspect line cleaning had a influence too. Decent pubs clean the lines every day before starting serving but some do it once a week, and others - well your guess is as good as mine.
Strangeways also is not too far from the centre of Manchester so that also probably helped as the beer never had a good name for travelling.
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I did mean sour in a good way.
I used to drink most of my Boddies in the Smut Inn, in Hollinwood - about 7 miles from the brewery. It was kept beautifully by an old style landlord who was always dressed in a suit and tie - unlike 95% of the clientele.
8o)
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Bring back the large cistern toilets is what I say. Our recently installed 6 litre toilet frequently leaves jobbies* in the pan, and needs flushing a second time. Our previous 10 litre cistern toilet was much more effective in flushing the jobbies away.
*www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jobbie
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"Admiral Browns" you mean?
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On one occasion, just out of curiosity, I checked our water meter before and after washing the car. I'd used approximately 0.25 cubic metres. At today's prices that's 72 pence. That's much cheaper than the cost of the round trip to, and using, our nearest DIY carwash.
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Today's prize for OCD goes to Mr. Snail :-)
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>> Today's prize for OCD goes to Mr. Snail :-)
>>
It's like water off a snail's back.
:-D
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Water bills - how much! - Bromptonaut
